1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for making dialogue between a person and computer more convenient.
In the present invention, the term “dialogue” includes voice dialogue and text dialogue, and also includes at least a message from a person and at least a message from a computer. Below, a message input by a person into a computer is called a “user message”, and a message output from a computer is called a “system message”.
2. Background Information
Recently, voice portals that provide some of the information on the World Wide Web by using a voice dialogue system have become more common. A voice portal often employs VoiceXML as a language for writing a dialogue scenario. A voice dialogue system employed for a voice portal and the like performs voice dialogue with a user, acquires information needed for a search process, and performs information searches using a database. During the time between a search request to a search system that includes a database and receipt of a response, a wait time of a few to dozens of seconds may occur. Particularly when information is acquired from a voice portal via the network, in addition to search time, network delay may also occur. To alleviate user stress during this wait time, in a conventional voice dialogue system, prompts appear to the effect that an information search is in progress, or advertising audio is played.
However, when just prompts or advertising audio are used, a user during wait time is simply listening to one-way system output. Thus the user does not use the connection time with the voice dialogue system effectively.
An object of the present invention is to provide technology for efficient utilization of connection time between a user and a dialogue system.